by Loreena Walsh | Featured Posts, Thoughts & Ideas
Even now, as I write this to you all, it seems surreal.
Years of discussion, hard work, hard decisions, uncertainty, guilt and struggles both mentally and financially have taken their toll.
I truthfully can’t remember the first moment we decided we were really going to go on the biggest ever holiday with kids and tour Australia full time, it was something we’d always said we wanted to do. What we didn’t realise is just how difficult the journey to get to this point would be.
What we did realise though, was that we were on the way to finding our happiness, and yet didn’t feel happy. Things felt hard, and difficult, we were waiting for things to be right, and easy, and that just wasn’t going to happen.
Then, when Matt got sick, we realised the waiting had to be over, and we needed to be present in the moment and force our dreams to come true. Our dream of travelling full time has been a tough one to achieve, but, it taught us the most important lesson we’ve ever learned:
Dreams are hard to achieve, but it makes achieving them feel even more amazing
So, instead of waiting until we had the perfect gear, and the perfect finances in the bank, and the perfect work done to the car, we put all our effort into doing what we could with the time and money we had, to be prepared enough. “Perfection” is the killer of dreams, “enough” is a word that will set you free. So we have been quiet, we haven’t been blogging much, or on social media pretty much at all, but we’ve been busier than we’ve ever been in our lives, and here’s why:
A few “all nighters” and we stopped procrastinating, got done what we needed to, and here it is… the only picture I have of us driving off to our new lives, snapped by my sister in law.
At 11pm on January 20, 2014, we rolled out of my brother and sister in law’s driveway near Dubbo. Waved them goodbye, along with my 2 nieces and nephew, and drove off into the wilderness to live our new nomadic lives. I would be lying if I said I was tear free, I couldn’t help but let a few tears flow, we’d been living with them for around 8 months while Matt was working and as chaotic as it was having 2 families living on top of each other, we’d all survived it pretty well and had a rhythm, even if it was a chaotic one. We’ll be forever grateful to them for everything they’ve done to help us achieve our dream.
We arrived at Mendooran, to the free campsite there, which is a beautiful camp ground with flush toilets and cold showers with lots of space and beautiful open skies, set up our van for the first “official” night on the road, and settled in to take in everything that we’d experienced on the path to that moment. Seeing as we arrived so late, we were happy to figure out that the Swan is able to be put up while still hitched to the car, and it doesn’t take long to set up either. Check out the picture below, it took my tears away and brought a smile to my face.
So there you have it, we’re one the road. We’re full time nomads. No more short or medium trips, no more real home base to return to, this is it, we’ve got everything with us we need to get by. We feel excited, vulnerable, and no matter what happens throughout our journey, we all feel proud of sticking to our dreams and getting this far.
Look out Tasmania, we’re on our way……..
by Loreena Walsh | Family Travel
Australia is known as the lucky country, and for good reason, for those of us who live here, we really are blessed with an amazing gift. Sure, there’s things that aren’t how we wish them to be, but for the most part we’re blessed with AMAZING Australian nature and wildlife, a great laid back culture, great healthcare, great education and the opportunity to live our dreams if we really want them enough. I’m not going to get into arguments about what may be lacking in the areas of health care and education, and you wouldn’t either if you really took time out to compare our standard of living to many countries in the world!
With that being said, I often wonder if our country is so amazing, why is it that so many people I know have travelled overseas yet never visited Kakadu, Uluru, The Kimberley’s or any of the other amazing destinations we have right on our doorstep? There are people risking their lives for the chance to live in our country, and yet so many Aussies tend to flit off overseas for their family holidays. What happened to the great Australian family holiday? The one where you take a family road trip and explore what our rich red soil has to offer?
There are so many reasons to stay home and travel Australia with your kids and skip the overseas holiday for now, here’s our top 5 reasons for travelling Australia with your family 🙂
- 1. You’ll discover just how little you know about Australia and you’ll learn heaps! In the days when the furthest I’d ventured from home was 4-5 hours, I honestly thought I knew what Australia was about. Oh boy how wrong was I! Venturing into different states and regions of Australia is sometimes comparable with exploring a new country! There is a vast divide between what life is like in Cities or coastal regions vs life in remote communities and outback towns. There’s even a huge difference between our Capital Cities. People speak a little differently, have different stories, and different issues, yet we’re all uniquely Aussie and that connects us all.
- 2. You’ll support local industry and help keep people in jobs. Australia has faired reasonably well in in respect to the Global Financial Crisis, but that doesn’t mean that some industries haven’t suffered. Our healthy economy means that it’s become cheaper for Aussies to travel overseas and more expensive for people to visit us from abroad, that makes for a tourism industry that’s feeling the pinch. If you can’t afford to stay in 5 star hotels, there’s plenty of ways to make travelling around Australia affordable, by camping, or choosing family cabins, caravans or even camper trailers you can spread your money further than otherwise possible. Every little town you visit on the way, every small business you support will be oh so grateful!
- 3. You’re children will be inspired! This is especially true if you’re living in a large suburban area or city. Heck we live in regional Australia and our kids are still blown away each time they explore a new corner of our country. Children are inquisitive by nature, they love to discover and explore and there’s lots of opportunity to do that on the road. Not only will they learn so much about the country that’s nurturing them, they’ll learn about other cultures too. You’ll meet lots of people travelling from a wide range of countries on the road, and it’s great to listen to their stories and lifestyles back in their homeland.
- 4. Bridge the Gap! Theres no excuse not to visit friends in distant places if you’re travelling Australia on your own schedule. Take the opportunity to do numerous road stops on the way, discover all the great towns and landmarks and treat yourself to visits with people you don’t get to see often. Staying with friends and family can save you money too.
- 5. REALLY get to know your Family! Not only will travelling give you a chance to reconnect with those you’ve been missing, but it’s also one of the best opportunities to get to know your own family. In our busy schedules it’s easy to pretend we’re spending time together, but more often than not it’s just fleeting moments of chit chat. Living on top of one another brings about amazing opportunities to not only get to know your children, it also allows you to learn and explore together creating memories that will last a lifetime and help shape your children for the future.
While I absolutely understand the desire to travel overseas, I truly feel that people often push aside exploring their own country simply because it is there, and they feel it will always be there. Life truly is too short to not see Australia, and I can’t recommend enough hitting the road with your children, no matter their age to open your hearts and minds together to forge memories that are unforgettable!
